What Happens When You Clench Your Teeth?

Posted on 10/30/2016 by Dr. Justin Lai

When a person clenches their teeth, they are using extreme pressure to push their top and bottom jaws together. This can cause a lot of harm to the teeth, especially if this behavior is happening without a person's conscious thought behind it. If you not only clench your teeth but also grind them, often referred to as bruxism, this can wear down your teeth and leave you in a lot of pain.

Damage Caused by Teeth Clenching

When you push your top and bottom sets of teeth together with force, you can make it to where the enamel around your teeth begins to crack. After enough time and pressure, those cracks can extend down your teeth and results in fractured teeth. If the fractures are severe enough, you could end up having to have those teeth extracted, resulting in tooth loss.

If you grind your teeth, you could wear the layers of enamel off of your teeth and wear your teeth down to become flat surfaces. This can result in the tooth's nerve being exposed, plus it can make eating much more difficult since you have no bumps in your teeth to help you break down the foods that you are eating.

Go in and see your dentist if you find yourself clenching your jaw before you wind up in pain or with fractured teeth. The sooner you go in, the more options your dentist is going to be able to provide you in terms of treating your clenching.

They can only do so much once you have extensive levels of damage to your teeth, so make sure to contact our office as soon as possible. Once we have corrected the issues from clenching, make sure that you through and stop yourself from clenching more in the future.

General and Cosmetic Dentistry

From crowns and bridges to periodontal care and extractions, Justin Lai, DDS offers a wide range of general and cosmetic dental treatments. If you have a dental concern, Dr. Lai will have a solution.

Edge Dental is equipped with digital x-rays, intra-oral cameras and 3-dimensional cone beam imaging to gain the best possible information about patient dental health. This enables Dr. Lai to view teeth, gum tissue and surrounding bone structures in high resolution from all angles. Based on findings, treatment plans are designed to optimize oral health with minimally invasive procedures.